The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction

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When it comes to videogames based on comic books, Hulk is strongest one there is!

By Jeremy Dunham

As a longtime fan of the Hulk since the 1970s, I've always had a soft spot for videogames based on my favorite superhero. Unfortunately, the Green Goliath hasn't had the same kind of excessive treatment over the years afforded to more mainstream guys like Spider-Man and the X-Men, so the selection of titles out there has been somewhat slim. Luckily, Radical Entertainment's The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction makes that thin assortment a moot point, as it's the deepest, most accurate recreation of the Jade Giant that anybody could ever hope for (and makes other titles based on Banner's alter ego look like the "Rick Jones Hulk" in comparison).

The reason for the game's obvious success is because the production team has gone back to the drawing board and totally rebuilt its project from scratch. As some of you may remember, Radical also developed 2003's movie-inspired Hulk title that was praised for its action sequences but panned for its Banner bits. Radical remembered those sentiments exactly when designing Ultimate Destruction, and removed the stealthy (and tiresome) Banner levels to focus on the aspect that everyone wanted to spend their time with anyway... playing as the Incredible Hulk.

To do so, the development team has axed the structured, linear levels of its last Hulk adventure and opened things up into an expansive free-roaming world. While not based on any real-life city like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas or Spider-Man 2, Ultimate Destruction still maintains an authentic urban feel to it -- with bridges, hospitals, moving traffic, and pedestrians that all have one thing in common: they're certain unavoidable targets for the basketball-sized fists of Ol' Greenskin.

What makes attacking these targets so fun, though, is that just about everything you encounter is completely deformable: Various types of autos break and smash into pieces, trees and lampposts are uprooted from their bases, explosions go off in just about every direction, and sometimes even buildings themselves crack and crumble to the ground. "Ultimate Destruction" is exactly what this experience offers and as the Incredible Hulk himself, there's little you can't do to make the game live up to its title.

These choppers are hard at first, but eventually are no match for you.

But if all you could do was run around the city smashing things up with a small repertoire of moves, then the Incredible Hulk would grow old pretty quickly. Fortunately, that's not the case at all and in a pleasant twist, the destructible environments play directly into an absolutely enormous move set... with dozens upon dozens of entertaining attacks that the future "Maestro" can easily unleash on the hapless masses. There are a number of combos, weapon strikes, grabs, throws, and chains that you can perform because of this, as well, and just about every single one of them are incredibly cool.

Want to smash a bus into flattened metal and then use it as a shield? Go right ahead! Would you prefer to shatter a radio tower and use the leftover antenna as a javelin? You can do that too! You can even crush boulders into near-perfect circles and play oversized bowling or clang two cars together to form makeshift boxing gloves that inflict additional damage. And just when you though you've seen it all, a new mission comes along that requires you to hop onto a harrier jet and wrestle it to the ground or bash a cargo truck over your head for use as a Metal Gear Solid-inspired cardboard box disguise for sneaking into military bases. Needless to say, the move progression system here is perfect (using a traditional purchase system not unlike Onimusha or Devil May Cry) and steadily transforms you from a mindless oversized pugilist into an unstoppable engine of destruction. I love it.

I'm also a big fan of the boss fights and the enemies in general. Though you'll begin your quest stacked up against local police officers and other minor foes, your rogue's gallery ultimately overflows with (very) aggressive tanks, bazooka men, mobile rocket launchers, helicopters, government super jets, and various interpretations of the armored Hulkbusters from the mid-to-late '80s (made popular during the whole Peter David / Todd McFarlane run in the early 300s). The end result is a default difficulty setting that isn't too taxing, but should suit seasoned action fans just fine. The challenge can be further adjusted towards a delightfully hardcore intensity too, and it's worth giving a try if you fancy yourself a videogame badass.